Violent Economic “Reforms”, and the Growing Violence against Women

Today the brave and courageous survivor of the Delhi gang rape breathed her last. This blog is a tribute to her and other victims of violence against women.

Violence against women is as old as patriarchy. But it has intensified and become more pervasive in the recent past. It has taken on more brutal forms, like the murder of the Delhi gang rape victim and the suicide of the 17 year old rape victim in Chandigarh.

10.0pt;line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif"”>Rape cases and cases of violence against women have increased
mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;color:#303030″> With 24,206 cases in 2011, rape cases jumped to incredible increase of 873% from 1971 when NCRB started to record cases of rape. And Delhi has emerged as the rape capital of India, accounting for 25% of cases.
line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial”>The movement to stop this violence must be sustained till justice is done for every one of our daughters and sisters who has been violated.

line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial”>Could there be a connection between the growth of violent, undemocratically imposed, unjust and unfair, economic policies and the growth of crimes against women?

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line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial”>Worse, an alienated political class is afraid of its own citizens. This is what explains the increasing use of police to crush non violent citizen protests as we have witnessed in Delhi. Or in the torture of Soni Sori in Bastar. Or in the arrest of Dayamani Barla in Jharkhand. Or the thousands of cases against the communities struggling against the nuclear power plant in Kudankulam. A privatized corporate state must rapidly become a police state.

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line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial”>Economic systems influence culture and social values. An economics of commodification creates a culture of commodification, where everything has a price, and nothing has value.

line-height:150%;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:Arial”>The victim of the Delhi gang rape has triggered a social revolution. We must sustain it, deepen it, expand it. We must demand and get speedy and effective justice for women. We must call for fast track courts to convict those responsible for crimes against women. We must make sure laws are changed so justice is not elusive for victims of sexual violence. We must continue the demand for blacklisting of politicians with criminal records.

And while do all this we need to change the ruling paradigm which is imposed on us in the name of “growth”, and which is fuelling increasing crimes against women. Ending violence against women includes moving beyond the violent economyshaped by capitalist patriarchy to nonviolent peaceful, economies which give respect to women and the Earth.